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Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Crave by Melissa Darnell

Release Date: 18th October, 2011

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Pages: 416pgs

The Story

Savannah Colbert has never known why she's so hated by the kids of the Clann. Nor can she deny her instinct to get close to to Clann golden boy Tristan Coleman. Especially when she recovers from a strange illness and the attraction becomes nearly irresistible. It's as if he's a magnet, pulling her gaze, her thoughts, even her dreams. Her family has warned her to have nothing to do with him, or any members of the Clann. But when Tristan is suddenly everywhere she goes, Savannah fears she's destined to fail.

For years, Tristan has been forbidden to even speak to Savannah Colbert. Then Savannah disappears from school for a week and comes back . . . different, and suddenly he can't stay away. Boys seem intoxicated just from looking at her. His own family becomes stricter than ever. And Tristan has to fight his own urge to protect her, to be near her no matter the consequences . . .

The Review

A big thanks to Harlequin Teen on netGalley for accepting my request in reading this book early!

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Finally there's a book with witches and vampires that I love and adore completely. I'll be honest here my fellow blog readers, I didn't expect to fall in love with CRAVE but indeed I did and it surprised me in many ways. Seriously it did and considering the mixed reviews roaming around the internet. . . I truly don't understand why people didn't love this book as much as I did. There's forbidden romance (cliche line but who cares about that!), there's interesting mythology (very twisty mythology that is so awesome words can't compare), and of course there is a well-done two narrative perspectives that switches between a girl and boy (a great narrative by the way).

Savannah and Tristan used to be best friends. In fourth grade they got "married", but since then Savannah's 'friends' suddenly wanted nothing to do with her. With Tristan included. With no explanation, it leaves Savannah feeling all alone. And now, seven years later, whenever Tristan walks into a room she can feel him there and is drawn to him in a way she shouldn't be . . . since her family wants her to stay away from him as does Tristan's who also warn him to stay away from her too. But the underlying question is: Why? The answers soon unfold when Savannah gets very ill and learns something unexpected in her family history - something that will change everything she knows and her entire future depends on this one secret. Or two.

As you can gather above, I adored this book. Inside and out. The love between Savannah and Tristan was super sweet and it was the kind of love that develops naturally - rather then BOOM here it is kind of love. Plus, given their history together, it made sense to why these two characters were forced together in unsuspecting ways. One of the other things I loved was the whole history behind The Clann which is why Melissa Darnell's writing totally rocked and just everything about the world she created was so damn creative!

Now out of everything I've read, what I enjoyed the most was the alternative points-of-view shared between Savannah and Tristan's characters. Whom are both dear to my heart. Switching perspectives is something that's very hard to write (because you have two strong minds to deal with in one book) and there are those rare times where authors can write them beautifully and in an enjoyable way. And in my opinion, Melissa Darnell did it absolutely . . . perfectly. Both of the main characters were believable in their own sense. But while we see plenty of girl character views in young adult books, but being a girl myself, I have always had the curious feeling of wanting to know what a guy thinks and that's exactly what you get in CRAVE. And I'm glad to say that both perspectives never interfered with the storyline and flowed just as magically as the characters themselves.

Okay I must stop gushing about this book. Stopping right here. Overall I'm seriously looking forward to the sequel because CRAVE pushed the boundaries of the paranormal genre and I'm dying to know what happens to Savannah and the hottie Tristan, since in this book was left in a major cliffhanger that was so unfair. So cruel . . . so cruel . . .

Haha glad you loved it, Erin! I really enjoyed the alternating perspectives aswell - love when we get to see what's happening from both sides of the relationship. And the vampire/witch aspect is totally what drew me in, because it's just such an intriguing and badass idea. Can't wait to see where Melissa takes this. And yes, I found the romance very believable too :D Awesome review!

OK, so this a super delayed comment, but this sounds AMAZING. This is somehow the first review I've read for it and now I'm dying to get my hands on it. I've added it to my TBR. So hoping for book-money for Christmas! XD